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Vina Jie-Min Prasad. A Series of Steaks. (Clarkesworld Magazine #124, January 2017)

A story from a (young?) Singaporean writer, new to me, which shows a lot of promise.

Helena Li Yuanhui of Splendid Beef Enterprises is not who she says she is. And the Splendid Beef she provides are 3-D printed, but masquerade as the real thing – she’s a food forger. She is ekeing out a living, lying low, but not low enough, as her past catches up with her and she is blackmailed into a big T-bone steak job.

Things are looking bleak, until her need to find help results in meeting one Lily Yonezawa, a high-energy talkative girl, and between them, as they build a relationship, they find a way out of their predicament.

The story doesn’t read like one from a novice writer, the characterisation is excellent, and I’d be keen to read more from this writer.